The Future of Education

Evidence-based ADHD interventions such as self-monitoring are scarcely used by educators, especially those teaching in secondary schools¹. Common barriers to intervention use include restricted time, poor knowledge of ADHD, and feelings of frustration and stress associated with teaching students with ADHD². Since barriers often are related to stimuli and events that result in increased mental effort, one theoretical lens through which such barriers can be understood is cognitive load. Therefore, in the present research, cognitive load theory³ was used as a framework to guide the design of a novel, computer-based self-monitoring intervention intended to reduce barriers to teachers’ intervention use. The purpose of the present research was (a) to evaluate the cognitive load experienced by teachers when implementing a self-monitoring intervention, and (b) to explore teachers’ acceptability of the novel, computer-based self-monitoring intervention. To this end, secondary school teacher participants from the United States read a vignette discription of an adolescent with ADHD and were subsequently randomly presented with one of two self-monitoring intervention modalities (i.e., computer-based or paper-and-pencil based) to support the student. Then, participants completing rating scales that assessed their likelihood of intervention use and perceived cognitive load associated with the intervention procedures. Although 336 participants met eligibility criteria to participate, only 89 participants were included in the final analysis after listwise deletion of cases that failed to pass the validity check for adequate engagement with the intervention and vignette. On average, participants found both intervention modalities to be similarly acceptable for classroom use. Althrough participants’ acceptabiity ratings for the computer-based intervention were somewhat higher, this difference had no practical significance.